


Asynchronicity

by Ciwu



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, what have i done other than be an asshole?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-08
Updated: 2016-10-08
Packaged: 2018-08-20 05:25:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8237650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ciwu/pseuds/Ciwu
Summary: “I didn’t realize you would still be with him.”

  The warm delight that had filled her at the thought of seeing her brother again abruptly drops into a coldness in the pit of her stomach.
  “I didn’t realize you wanted to do this in the bloody foyer,” she says coolly. “Shall we take a walk?”





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [griimdarks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/griimdarks/gifts).



> Griimdarks and I had a bet, and I won! But I wrote her a fic anyway, because I just do that. The prompt was "Something with Vax and Vex separating," and I've been just dying for an excuse to write a sort of twin... break up? If that's the phrase I'm looking for. I've had my issues with the way Vax has been behaving lately and if you're his biggest fan, this may not be the fic for you. I posted this a few days ago on Tumblr but I'm starting to migrate a few of my longer fics over here.

She’s standing on the balcony and looking out at the town square on the morning that Vax and Keyleth are due home. Even from this distance, she can see the flash of light that marks a magic portal opening in the trunk of the Sun Tree. Warmth and delight rush up through Vex at the thought of seeing her brother after all these months and she hurries back into her bedroom to begin dressing to meet him.

Vex pauses long enough to lean over Percy where he is sprawled in her bed, delightfully naked and only half covered by the sheets. It’s too early for him to be getting up, but he is partially awake from her climbing out of bed (he always notices when she leaves, though she rarely does these days) so she leans over him and presses a kiss to his mouth, whispering, “they’re back.”

He smiles into the kiss but makes a groaning noise at the thought of dealing with Keyleth so early in the morning. When she pulls away, he rolls over to bury his face in the pillows. Vex laughs a little at the line of red scratches down his back that this reveals, and she leaves him there to figure out what she’s giggling about.

She meets Vax and Keyleth in the main foyer and both of them look exhausted. They brighten at the sight of her though and Keyleth swoops in for a hug even before Vax does.

Vex is happy to see her too, but the reason for the hug becomes apparent when Keyleth whispers, “Save me, Vax is driving me up the wall,” in Vex’s ear.

Vex pulls away and says loud enough for Vax to hear, “Darling, it’s good to see you, Percy really missed you. He’s still mostly asleep but if you go get yourself some breakfast, he’ll probably join you before you’re done. Why don’t you do that while I talk to my brother?”

Keyleth gives her a grateful smile and says, “I missed him too,” before heading off towards the dining room. Halfway down the hall, she suddenly remembers to yell, “and I missed you, Vex!”

Vex winces a bit at the sound echoing through the stone halls. She glances at her brother, expecting to see a fond but exasperated look on his face. Instead she sees a furrowed brow directed her way. “What?”

“He’s still mostly asleep?” Vax echoes in a tone she already doesn’t like.

“Well it’s early, brother,” she says, pretending that’s the point Vax was making. “He’s not really a morning person.”

“It’s been a few months since we’ve been gone,” Vax says slowly.

“Nine months, yes. The better part of a year.”

Vax stares at her for a very long moment and Vex, accustomed to the way Percy mulls his words over so that they come out just right, makes the mistake of waiting patiently for him to draw his own conclusions.

“I didn’t realize you would still be with him.”

The warm delight that had filled her at the thought of seeing her brother again abruptly drops into a coldness in the pit of her stomach.

“I didn’t realize you wanted to do this in the bloody foyer,” she says coolly. “Shall we take a walk?”

Vax starts like he’s only just realized where they are. He jerks his head towards the courtyard without saying a word, as though they’re teenagers again, sneaking out of a house they just robbed.

Vex had hoped that being gone for so long on Keyleth’s pilgrimage would have made Vax think things over and realize that’d been a bit of a shit to Percy. But apparently they were going to have to actually hash this out, so sooner was better than later. Fortunately, neither Vex nor Vax had ever been the type to yell when they argued, so the open courtyard would not be an invitation for the whole town to hear them.

Vex leads her brother to a small garden off to the side of the main courtyard where Trinket had become fond of napping. Sure enough, as they get closer, a great bear head pops up from the other side of a low hedge and Trinket began bounding over to them in greetings.

Vax’s hands sink into Trinket’s thick fur and he kneels to give his nephew a hug. For a moment, Vex thinks they’ll be alright after all, but then Vax says, more to her than Trinket, “Banished outside like a mutt, eh?”

Vex takes a deep breath and then, on consideration, takes a few more. Eventually she says, much more calmly than she feels, “You know perfectly damn well that Trinket prefers to sleep outside when the weather gets cool. Trinket has free range of the castle and the entire town. Why are you doing this?”

“Sorry, you’re right. Percival’s not _that_ bad, and you wouldn’t let him anyway. I just - I was expecting you to have him out of your system by now.”

“Out of my system,” Vex repeats flatly.

“Yeah.” Vax stands up abruptly from Trinket, who grunts with displeasure. “Listen, I know you like the title, and the gold, and the power that comes along with the de Rolo name, but you know you don’t need any of that right?”

Vex stares at him for a long moment, then glances downward. She doesn’t need her son to hear his mother arguing with his uncle about his step-father. “Trinket, darling,” his ears perk up, “why don’t you go find Percy and make sure he’s awake? I’d hate for him to miss breakfast with Keyleth.”

Trinket gives an assenting growl, shakes the morning dew off his fur, and starts lumbering towards the castle. Vex watches him go while she gathers her thoughts.

There were things she had wanted to talk to Vax about and this conversation was encompassing none of them. _Well_ , she supposes, _I can still bring them up_. Abruptly she turns back to Vax and says, “You know, I’m going to marry him one day.”

Vax chokes on nothing. “The fuck you are.”

“Not today or tomorrow, or probably even any time soon,” she continues as though he hadn’t said anything. “It’s not something I’ve spoken with him about yet.”

“Are you seriously doing this just because of what I said?” He asks incredulously.

“Vax,” she hisses, starting to lose control of her temper, “there’s really nothing that I do these days just because of _you_.”

“But you’ll marry an uptight noble prick for - what? Because he’s convenient?” Vax demands.

“Because we’re in love, you fucking shitbird!” Vex snarls at him.

“So you’re just going to repeat the same mistake our mother made? What makes you think he really loves you anyway?” Vax snaps angrily, and that’s -

In the still silence that follows his words, Vex thinks that maybe, maybe they can fix this. Maybe Vax will realize what he said and apologize for it. He’s always been so awful about rushing ahead, traipsing into situations he shouldn’t, but he’s also always been so good at reading her and knowing how she feels that surely he’ll realize his mistake.

Instead, when Vax takes a deep breath and his face slides from anger to sympathy, what he says is, “I know you love him, and gods know I care about the idiot too, but I’m not sure he’s even capable of love.”

_That’s sort of the end of it_ , Vex thinks as a dull numbness washes over her. There’s no coming back from that. How do you move forward from there? 

Vex doesn’t understand how it came to this, really. She and Vax used to be in such lockstep that she thought even their hearts beat on the same rhythm. But at some point - somewhere, sometime - one of them missed a beat in the dance and every attempt to catch up has left them spiraling more and more out of sync.

Vax hasn’t known her mind for a long while now. Every time he tries to comfort her, he focuses on the wrong problem. When she tries to explain, he does not listen. He only hears what he wants to, when he used to hear even the things she could not bring herself to say.

He acts like Percy is taking Vex away from him - as though she is a possession to be stolen rather than his _sister_ , who he should be _happy_ for.

Percy is not taking her away from anyone for the simple reason that it would never occur to him to do so. He gives her everything in him with no expectation of getting anything in turn. Percy is perpetually amazed that Vex chooses to give him anything, much less something as precious as her heart, and he cherishes it as though she has granted him the moon and the stars.

But Vax will not see anything but the worst in Percy. Even now, after so many months of peace and contentment following the fall of the Cinder King, after Vax has spent months away from her on pilgrimage with Keyleth to the Water Ashari, after returning home -

But it isn’t, Vex realizes. Whitestone is her home now, but it isn’t Vax’s home. Vax’s home is wherever his wandering feet take him in pursuit of what his goddess wants, or wherever Keyleth chooses to let him follow. His home used to be wherever Vex was as well, but it seems that things have changed.

She does not need him, she realizes, and that hurts. But it hurts in the way of an old bruise that she forgot she had - it’s already nearly healed, mostly forgotten, but she’s pressed on it before it was entirely gone and there’s a dull ache to remind her.

Vex was not expecting their conversation to go this way, but somehow finds she is not surprised.

Vax sees the world in black and white, ironic for a man who has lived most of his life in shadows. Percy, for all the stark whiteness of his hair and the thick blackness of his smoke, is a man who only knows how to exist in shades of gray. Vax has measured out all of Percy’s sins and all of his good deeds and placed them on a scale to see which way it tilts, as though he is in any position to judge. And even then, it shouldn’t matter - Vex knows that no matter what Vax, and indeed no matter what Percy himself believe, Percy has done far more good in the world than harm.

But for Vax, one of those sins is heavy as a mountain and there is no amount of good deeds that could ever outweigh it. Vax will never truly forgive Percy for that single moment of carelessness (no more than Percy will forgive himself) and since it makes the scale list towards black, the white may as well not exist. Vax will never look at Percy and see anyone but the man who, briefly, killed Vex.

So that’s it. They’re done.

“Okay,” Vex says, after what feels like an eternity.

Vax looks puzzled and slightly hopeful. “Okay?”

“Scanlan decided to take up residence in a house in town. Kaylee stays there as well when she comes through, but both of them are out of town at the moment.”

“…Okay?” Vax says slowly and less hopefully.

Vex ignores him. “I don’t think he’d mind if you stayed at his place while you’re in town.”

“Vex?”

“I’ll tell Keyleth where you are and if she wants to stay with you, I guess she will.”

“Oh, come on!”

“I don’t want you near my family right now.”

“Your - I am your family!”

She starts to turn away from - she can barely look at him right now, she’s so angry - but he grabs her arm as she does. “Vex, don’t be like this.”

Vex whirls around and drags him in close by the collar of his cloak, still pinned closed by the broach that Percy made for him. The fact that he still wears it only fuels her fury and she hisses in his face, “I swear to every god that’s ever existed, Vax’ildan, if you come into the castle, I will have Jarrett throw you in the fucking dungeons. If you can’t manage to be happy that I’m happy, then you can leave me be. I am tired of listening to you speak and hearing nothing but our father.”

Vax reels like he’s been slapped and lets go of her arm.

And Vex… Vex walks away.


End file.
